Memento - A Literary Feast

Tonight was the final round of our current season of Memento - the meal planned backwards and eaten forwards. This round was hosted by Lizzie at Carolyn & David's house, with a theme of "A Literary Feast". Each of us picked a favorite book as the inspiration for our course, and read a bit from it when presenting our dish.



The first appetizer course was from Lizzie herself, inspired by Christopher Moore's novel "A Dirty Job", in which the protagonist realizes he's death. Her Hell inspired dish was Deviled Cheese Toasts - featuring white and yellow sharp cheddar cheese, mayo, peppers, pickles, and Franks red hot. It was accompanied by a Bloody Mary with a Bacon swizzle stick. A wonderful, playful start to the night.





Dan & I were up next, taking inspiration from a favorite book of both of us, "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" by Stephen Chomsky. It's a coming of age tale about a lonely high school freshman who finds friends in some seniors and begins to participate in life for the first time. It's a very sad story that taps into some of my own memories in ways that make me cry just thinking about it. Dan read a piece from the book that spoke to him, then I cried my way through a particularly moving passage for me.

As I read the book a second time on my Kindle, I highlighted ever reference to food in the book, hoping for inspiration. Unfortunately, it's mostly french fries and pot brownies, so not quite what we were looking for. But in true literary style, we used a pun playing off the book's title:

Faux Porks of Bean a Wallflower - two types of vegan bacon bits (Frontier Vegetarian Bits Bac'uns, 2.7-Ounce Bottle and homemade sunflower bacon bits) atop a Cannellini bean garlic parsley purée, with a homemade gluten-free cracker covered with edible bibiscus, lavender and brassica flowers.



Because it comes up a few times in the book, we served our dish with a bottle of brandy.

Inspired by the pot brownies in the book, (which is the chapter my passage was from), we also served everyone an edible flower called a "Buzz Buttons" that makes your mouth tingle and your salivary glands go into overdrive. We all had fun trying them out and then inviting the kids to try them, too. They're not a drug or narcotic, but have a similar effect as Szechuan peppercorns.





Next up was the Salad course from Marcy & James, which James had taken the lead on using his favorite Hemingway novel as his inspiration, "The Old Man and the Sea".

Their salad of butter lettuce, avocado, cucumber, and tomato was topped with pancetta, grapefruit, and some wonderful tuna (a fish referenced many times in the book), with a bright white vinegar, mustard, garlic and olive oil dressing.



Taking inspiration from a book neither had read, Anna & Jason's Entree course was courtesy of "Lolita".

The decadent dish was a Pork tenderloin with sweet spicy rub, roasted potatoes and a bacon wrapped fig with goat cheese, all drizzled with Sriracha aioli. And in her signature plating style, Anna included a strawberry and a sprig of rosemary on the plate.
Strawberry rosemary

They served it with a hearty red wine.





Although she couldn't be with us due to a friend in need, Nancy inspired the book Linda chose for the second entree course's inspiration: "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn".

Playing off the many food references in the book, and sharing some of the stories themselves, Linda served a vegetarian Meatball with Coffee Sriracha glaze, and Arugula salad with pumpkin butter vinaigrette, pumpkin seeds and creamy goat cheese, and Smashed potatoes. To accompany it she had coffee stout beer.



Carolyn & David, along with Logan & Zoe presented the final course, a dessert inspired by "The Hunger Games".

We were each presented with a plate with something under a piece of paper with the Mockingjaylogo on it, from the book. We were then invited to light the paper on fire. It turned out to be Flash Paper, resulting in a show stopping presentation to the dish (and lots of fun with fire).



Under the paper was a delicious Goat Cheese Cheesecake with a Pistachio crust and "Nightlock" berries (actually blueberries).



Tonight was also Anna's birthday, which we celebrated with a champagne toast before the meal, and then she received a 'cake' near the end of the meal with a candle to blow out. The cake turned out to be made from mashed potatoes.



It was great hearing about some books I've not read that friends really love, and enjoying a wonderful meal together. This turned into the longest Memento ever, with Dan & I getting home after midnight - a good end to a fun season.

Our First Experience with Shirataki

Tonight, Dan planned another recipe from the Men's Health cookbookhe discovered early this year. It featured an ingredient I'd never heard of, let alone used, so I thought it was worth a post - particularly with so many people doing paleo and gluten-free diets these days.



The recipe is a simple noodle & veggie stir-fry, but it uses tofu shirataki - a noodle made of soy beans and yam flour. Packaged in water, the noodles require no boiling, making dinner come together all the more quickly. You just rinse them and let them sit in hot water until you're ready to use them. They come in a couple shapes (the ramen-like noodles we used, plus fettuccine style), and AmazonFresh carries both. I'm not sure how versatile they are (e.g. can they be baked in a casserole?), but the flavor and texture were good, so I'd definitely try them out again.



Black Bean, Vegetable and Noodle Stir-Fry
2 tspn olive oil
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1 small zucchini, halved and cut into chunks
2 cloves garlic, minced
16 oz shirataki noodles, drained and rinsed in hot water
1 15-16oz can of black beans, drained and rinsed
2 Tbspn soy sauce
1 1/2 tspn sodium-free seasoning mix
2 Tbspn fresh cilantro, chopped
Hot sauce

In a wok or large skillet over high heat, warm the oil. Add the peppers, onion, zucchini and garlic. Reduce the heat to medium-high and cook, stirring frequently, for 4 minutes or until vegetables start to soften.



Add the noodles, beans, soy sauce (we used gluten free) and seasoning mix (we used a mix of garlic powder, onion powder, cumin, coriander, cayenne, and chili powder). Reduce the heat to medium. Cook, stirring frequently, for 3-4 minutes longer, or until the mixture is hot. Add the cilantro. Toss to mix. Serve with hot sauce.

Homemade Eggless Noodles!

My Mom's trying out a very restricted diet (see the 'For Mom' section of the site for more info), so I've started scouring through cookbooks and playing around with some recipes. Since eggs is on the forbidden list, and lots of pasta has eggs in it, I thought I'd start with a couple recipes from 1000 Vegan Recipes by Robin Robertson.

This one turned out to be incredibly easy. I made ravioli in a matter of minutes with some of the dough and a little leftover pancetta.

Egg-Free Pasta Dough
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tspn salt
2 Tbspn olive oil
1/2 to 3/4 cup hot water



In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour and salt.



Make a well in the center (to trap the liquids).



Add the olive oil.



Add 1/2 cup of the hot water.



Stirring with a fork, gradually incorporate the flour into the liquid.



Add additional water as needed to make stiff dough. You should err on the side of the dough being a little sticky, as more flour will be incorporated in while kneading.



Knead on a lightly floured work surface until smooth - about 2 or 3 minutes. If the dough is still sticky, sprinkle the surface with a little flour.



Shape the disk and wrap in plastic wrap and let rest unrefrigerated for 15 minutes. Or you can refrigerate the dough overnight (or freeze for up to two weeks), after which you'll want to bring it to room temperature before rolling it out.



And now it's ready to roll out, cut into whatever shape you like and boil for a few minutes.

Soy and dairy are also on her no eat list, so I also found this take on Parmesan cheese that uses sesame seeds and nutritional yeast.

Vegan Parmesan Cheese - Parmasio
1/2 cup sesame seeds
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1/2 tspn salt

In a dry skillet, toast the sesame seeds over medium heat, stirring, until golden brown - about 4-5 minutes. Immediately remove from the pan to cool so they don't burn. In a food processor, combine the toasted sesame seeds, nutritional yeast and salt and pulse until finely ground. Store in the refrigerator in a dry container with a tight fitting lid.



Here's my homemade ravioli topped with Parmasio.



And a couple nights later, I rolled out the rest of the dough, cut it into strips and paired it with broccoli and salmon.